1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to replacement parts for gauge faces, and more particularly relates to a process for manufacturing replacements for gauge faces found in vehicle instrument panels.
2. Description of Related Art
It is well known in the art to manufacture replacements for gauge faces found in automotive or other vehicle instrument panels. Generally, these automotive aftermarket gauge faces use aluminum or some other metal that includes letter, lines, and characters silk screened or painted on the surface of the replacement gauge face. Some of these automotive aftermarket companies have attempted to create the replacement gauge faces from some form of dies, cut from plastic and other associate methods. However, these methods of manufacturing the gauge faces tend to have inherent problems with accuracy and quality of the finished product. The quality issues are of particular importance in the automotive aftermarket. Vehicle operators are constantly scanning and looking at their instrument panels and the gauge faces placed thereon. These replacement gauge faces of the prior art methodologies may create unclean and sloppy looking gauge faces that are misaligned and do not project a clear image of the letters, lines and characters, silk-screened or otherwise formed and placed on the surface of the prior art automobile replacement gauge faces. Accuracy and quality problems with the prior art replacement vehicle gauge faces create customer complaints and less reliable gauge faces for use in replacing original equipment on an automotive vehicle.
Other attempts at creating or repairing automotive gauge faces have been tried since the instrument panel became part of the automotive vehicle in the early 20th century. However, none of these replacement gauge faces have the accuracy and quality of finish that automotive enthusiast want and desire. Therefore, there is a need in the art for a process for creating automobile gauge faces out of a metal that have high accuracy and high quality finishes. The high accuracy high quality of finish of these replacement gauge faces will allow automobile owners to confidently restore and replace automobile gauge faces that appear new to the user and others in the automotive vehicles. There is also a need in the art for a lower cost and faster machining process for creating automobile replacement gauge faces.